fuji provia 35mm on sale at B&H

RattyMouse · Dec 6, 2017

bvy said:
It tells you nothing really. There are probably a hundred or more labs in the US alone still processing E6, some capable of large volumes. (A single lab was capable of keeping up with Kodachrome processing worldwide in its final days.) This doesn't take into account the people who are processing E6 themselves, and still others who are cross-processing it.

Nothing? I dont think so. If there were E6 labs on every street corner it would tell you that there popularity of that film was sky high. Watching labs close down the past few decades informs the observer that it's not economically viable to base a business on developing E6 film. The number of labs that process E6 diminishes each and every year.

That tells me something about E6 film, but perhaps nothing to you.

Huss · Dec 6, 2017

benveniste said:
Back up to $49.95. Grump.

Perhaps this was a marketing type survey to see at what price point this would sell at sufficient numbers to offset the price drop.

dscottjorgenson · Dec 7, 2017

RattyMouse said:
Nothing? I dont think so. If there were E6 labs on every street corner it would tell you that there popularity of that film was sky high. Watching labs close down the past few decades informs the observer that it's not economically viable to base a business on developing E6 film. The number of labs that process E6 diminishes each and every year.

That tells me something about E6 film, but perhaps nothing to you.

Odd perhaps, but that's not my experience in my area. If I hear you rightly, and I've heard it from others too, you're saying that E6 processing availability is declining more rapidly than other processes like C41. But that's not what's been happening around here (San Francisco Bay Area, from about San Francisco down to Santa Cruz is my radius). Custom film labs in general have been declining, for sure; in the past 10 years or so, first Calypso, then Bay Photo, New Lab, and most recently, Lightwaves, off the top of my head. But of those, only Bay Photo stopped E6 before exiting film altogether; and all of the labs left standing around here (eg Foto Express, Photoworks SF, Oscar's, Little Film Lab) still process E6. Maybe their volumes are down relative to C41, say - I wouldn't know - but sheer availability is still there.

Minoltafan2904 · Dec 7, 2017

Sure E-6 processing is hard to find these days, for a lot of people it's mail it somewhere and wait 2 weeks or more to get your results of do it yourself, but that isn't stopping people who love transparency film from shooting it, back in 2010 people were sending their last Kodachromes from all over the world to Dwayne's photo.

I can consider myself lucky that there's a studio in my city here in Spain that just started offering E-6 processing just a few months ago, they even offer black and white reversal processing, they'll even mount your slides which not many places can do anymore, aswell as regular b&w and C-41.
Processing + scanning a roll of 35mm E-6 costs me around 13 Euros at this studio, which for me is quite ok, i am considering starting to cut my own slids and mounting them myself, since at this lab they charge me 11 Euros just for the mounts which is too much.

bvy · Dec 7, 2017

RattyMouse said:
Nothing? I dont think so. If there were E6 labs on every street corner it would tell you that there popularity of that film was sky high. Watching labs close down the past few decades informs the observer that it's not economically viable to base a business on developing E6 film. The number of labs that process E6 diminishes each and every year.

That tells me something about E6 film, but perhaps nothing to you.

That tells me something about the profitability of processing E6 film, and maybe something about the amount of E6 film being sent to labs, but very little about how much of the film is being purchased and shot. There’s no reason to believe all three trend lines should move in tandem. E6 film sales could very easily level off, or even start to trend slightly upward again, while labs continue to stop offer processing. In fact, fewer labs doing more volume could be beneficial to all of us.

keenmaster486 · Dec 8, 2017

The small number of E6 labs left only tells you something about the demand for E6 film at CURRENT PRICES.

Current prices for E6 film are prohibitively high for many people who would otherwise buy it in addition to C41. This is an unnatural state for the market to be in, as Fuji currently has a monopoly on E6. As was bound to happen, this will be remedied by the introduction of Ektachrome, and, due to the resulting competition, prices will fall. More E6 will be bought, shot, and developed, stabilizing the decline in E6 labs and possibly even inducing more of them to enter the market.

The reason we know that sufficient demand will be there at the future lower price is by watching the behavior of the price of the film when the supply is severely restricted due to discontinuation, as I mentioned in my earlier post.

Somebody might want to draw the supply and demand curves for this to make it more clear, as I am currently going to bed.

Is there an actual economist in the house who can either confirm or refute my theory? I am actually curious.

Wallendo · Dec 8, 2017

I received my 5-pack of Provia yesterday and it has an expiration date of May 2018. This isn't a problem for me as the film has already been placed in my refigerator, but suggests that B&H may have been trying to sell down some of their older stock before it became "short date" stock.

bvy · Dec 9, 2017

For what it's worth, the 40 pack remains on sale at $309.60. That's about $7.75 per roll. Not quite the savings of the $28.75 five pack, but it's something.

lantau · Dec 15, 2017

If anyone in Munich is looking for 'cheap' Velvia 50 135, there are some freshly expired rolls available for €10. I was at the local Foto Gregor (exit Isartor station toward Deutsches Museum, it will be on the left), yesterday, to buy an Instax camera. They had a small mound of Velvia boxes on the counter. Expiration was 09/2017, I believe.

On the film shelve I only saw Velvia 100 and Provia 100F, so maybe they gave up on the 50. Compared to the small amount of those two there was a giant number of CT Precisa on the shelf. In medium format they still had the full E6 range, I believe. Definitely some Velvia 50.

I didn't buy any because I'm still having plenty of stock. I just don't find enough opportunity with interesting motives to use up my E6 stocks quicker.

Prest_400 · Dec 15, 2017

lantau said:
If anyone in Munich is looking for 'cheap' Velvia 50 135, there are some freshly expired rolls available for €10. I was at the local Foto Gregor (exit Isartor station toward Deutsches Museum, it will be on the left), yesterday, to buy an Instax camera. They had a small mound of Velvia boxes on the counter. Expiration was 09/2017, I believe.

Too bad I'm not anywhere close, or else I'd grab a couple rolls to try. Indeed 35mm is a slow seller as I see high prices and discounts on some retailers because of the dates. I know I'm guilty because I don't shoot enough E6 and let it linger in my freezer. Also I have to buy it and develop it elsewhere so it is inconvenient for small quantities.
On 35mm I don't quite know what to do with slide, but now having a spare F90 with nice matrix metering makes it easy to have it loaded with E6 or Ektar and occasional use.

RattyMouse · Dec 16, 2017

E6 film hardly sells so you find it most often expired.

fuji provia 35mm on sale at B&H

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